"Yawn" by Sally Symes and Illustrated by Nick Sharratt

This week my charge and I picked up a copy of Yawn by Sally Symes and illustrated by Nick Sharratt at the local library. It’s already one of her favorite books. We started reading it at nap time and now she’s reading it herself to her baby dolls.

The book is an adorable rhyme that’s easy to learn with big colorful pictures. The picture book starts with a boy named Sean yawning and he passes the yawn to a Cat. Then the Cat makes a yawn and gives it to a Bird. On each page the animals give a yawn to an animal on the next page until it’s time for them to go upstairs to bed.

When I read the cute rhyme to the little girl in my care, I make sure to make a loud and animated yawn when we read the word “YAWN” on each page of the book. The little one I care for giggles each time I make the loud yawn.

The rhyme helps the child anticipate what animal will be found on the next page. So now, as I read the book to the little girl, I pause before I turn each page, and my young friend yells out what animal is on the next page.

We even mimic the simple rhyme all through the house. I replace the animals in the book with my charge’s stuffed animals and we even give yawns to one another. At breakfast we have the plate give a yawn to the eggs. It’s such a simple way to have fun.

Each animals’ mouth has a big round hole that the child and nanny can play peekaboo with as well.

I highly recommend this cute book for infants and toddlers of all ages.